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Adava fire, March 2021 Adava, Mohana, Badagada

Out · last measured on 7 Mar 2021

The fire started on 5 March 2021 in Adava, India, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,051 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 15th largest in Odisha since 2016 (of 16 with a page). Number 77 in India in 2021, of 78.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
5,051ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
5 Mar 2021 – 7 Mar 2021
Municipalities hit
3
subdistricts
Started on
5 Mar
2021
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

34°high
38km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

15% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13 ha in 2016, 203 ha in 2017, 544 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Adava where it started
    2,072 ha
    2.5 %
  2. Mohana
    1,630 ha
    2.7 %
  3. Badagada
    1,377 ha
    1.7 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
5 Mar 33.6 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Mar 33.2 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Mar 33.4 °C 22 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Mar after 32.8 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Mar after 32.3 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Mar after 32.2 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Mar after 31.0 °C 41 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
12 Mar after 31.5 °C 40 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
13 Mar after 30.2 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.3 mm High 27
14 Mar after 30.9 °C 44 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
15 Mar after 31.6 °C 42 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
16 Mar after 32.6 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
17 Mar after 32.6 °C 29 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 26 Feb 2021
After · 14 Mar 2021

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Adava fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 March 2021 and 7 March 2021: 3 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,051 hectares (50.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Adava (2,072 ha, 2.5 %); Mohana (1,630 ha, 2.7 %); Badagada (1,377 ha, 1.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of India (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 112

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.